No really, The Witcher is becoming a F2P Mobile MOBA

It's true: CD Projekt RED has revealed that The Witcher Battle Arena is headed to iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and Windows 8 tablets this Winter. Franchise characters such as Letho of Gulet, dwarven adventurer Zoltan Chivay and sorceress Philippa Eilhart will form teams of three and duke it out with a selection of unique skills, presumably running through some intimate maps with three lanes and seriously it's a MOBA, you know how they work by now.

In a neat twist, though, CD Projekt promise that there won't be any "pay to win elements," instead centred purely around skill and deepening class builds with skills unlocked through continued play. Considering their reputation as one of the most equitable games companies of all time, we can probably trust them on that.

“In a world full of enter-your-PIN-number-to-win mechanics, what we value above all is well-balanced and honest gameplay,” said Tadek Zieliński, Creative Analyst, CD PROJEKT RED. “Battle Arena is all about skill and dedication, and we’ve spent hundreds of hours planning to make it a paragon of fairness in mobile gaming,” Zieliński added.

“The whole team here at Fuero Games is really excited at the prospect of developing a game for such a big and engaged community as that of The Witcher. I’m convinced that our skill in mobile multiplayer game development, combined with the creative flair of CD PROJEKT RED, will produce an experience Witcher fans will want to come back to again and again,” said Stanisław Fiedor, CEO, Fuero Games.

Speaking personally, I'm not convinced that we need another MOBA. As in: any other MOBAs. DotA 2, LoL and Smite are probably enough competent variations on exactly the same concept, aren't they?

But... well, you can play The Witcher Battle Arena on the bus. For free. It'll tide us over until The Wild Hunt lanches next year at the very least.

In many ways I'm worried that an IP as fantastically acclaimed as The Witcher might suffer being expanded into a MOBA, which is somewhat at odds with the dark, gritty, mature, expansive, choice/consequence-laden, narrative-driven games we've enjoyed thus far.

Then again, the IP is big enough to accommodate it if it's good. And CDPR have never let me down thus far.